Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Pitchfork Media	8.9/10
PopMatters	9/10
Q (1993)
Q (2006)
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Uncut
The Village Voice	B–

A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975. Co-produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release. The album takes its name from the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. The album was originally released by EMI Records in the United Kingdom, where it topped the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks, and Elektra Records in the United States, where it peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and became the band's first Platinum selling album in the US. The worldwide sales for the album are currently over 6 million copies.

A Night at the Opera incorporates a wide range of styles, from ballads and songs in a music hall style, to hard rock tracks and progressive rock influences. It also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first UK number one and one of the best-selling singles in both the UK and the world.

"Death on Two Legs" can be referred to as Freddie Mercury's hate letter to Queen's first manager, Norman Sheffield, who for some years was reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972 to 1975. Sheffield denied that in his autobiography entitled "Life on Two Legs: Set The Record Straight", published in 2013, and referred to copies of the original 1972 management contracts between Sheffield and Queen, which were included in the book as proof of his defence. Though the song never makes direct reference to him, after listening to a playback of the song at Trident Studios during the time of album release, Sheffield was appalled, and sued the band and the record label for defamation, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement, but also confirmed his connection to the song.

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